1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a flushing mechanism for a print head of an ink jet type or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some ink jet printers that perform printing by ejecting ink from nozzles of a print head while moving the print head back and forth have measures for preventing nozzle clogging caused by increases in ink viscosity that are caused by, for example, dry ink in nozzles that are less frequently operated, or the like. In such an ink jet printer, the flushing operation for recovering the ink ejecting performance of all the nozzles of the print head is periodically performed by withdrawing the print head into a flushing area and causing the nozzles to eject ink to an ink absorber member provided in the flushing area.
In the flushing operating, all the nozzle openings of a print head are cleaned by ejecting ink from the nozzles. Therefore, the flushing operation cannot be performed in a printing area, so that a flushing area needs to be provided separately from the printing area. In the ink jet printers of this type, a flushing area is provided contiguously or continuously to an end of the printing area, and the print head is moved beyond the printing area into the flushing area in order to perform the flushing operation.
Some ink jet printers have a plurality of print heads for performing color printing by ejecting a plurality of color inks from the heads. In such ink jet printers, a plurality of print heads are disposed in the main scanning directions on a carriage. Therefore, in an ink jet printer having a plurality of print heads, all the print heads are withdrawn to the flushing area in order to perform the flushing operation.
However, since the flushing area is provided outwardly of the printing area, the width of the printing apparatus becomes relatively great because of the space for the flushing area in addition to the area needed for the carriage to reciprocate during print operation. Therefore, the printing apparatuses, especially printing apparatuses having a plurality of print heads, tend to become large in size and impede the pursuit of a compact apparatus design, failing to meet recent user's demands for easy transportation of a printing apparatus (printer) together with a mobile-type personal computer.
Furthermore, the moving distance of the carriage also increases, which is undesirable for improvement of paper throughput.